


Smitten

by witblogi



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Future Fic, M/M, There's a baby involved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-03
Updated: 2013-06-03
Packaged: 2017-12-13 20:12:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/828372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witblogi/pseuds/witblogi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>He watches again, the way Scott laughs, beaming with pride as his best friend lifts his daughter again, pressing happy kisses to her cheeks and plush little mouth. Stiles is a natural with Julia, he’s been away at school and hasn’t had a chance to properly meet her until now</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smitten

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on tumblr a million years ago, so apologies if you have seen this before. Figured I should post it before it gets y'know blown out of the water by season 3 messing up our alphas. Basically saw this picture that looks weirdly at first glance like Stiles/Dylan O'Brien kissing a bear-suited baby and this happened.

Derek grips his water glass a little tighter, glaring at his own white knuckles for only a moment before looking up again. This time Lydia is standing primly in front of him and he swallows his reaction, he’s not startled. 

“You’re going to break it if you keep doing that.” She holds a hand out for his glass, and waits, patient and superior until he surrenders it and she smiles beautifully in reply. Sometimes he feels like she’s training him, like a pet, like a  _dog._  He frowns at her and folds his arms over his chest.  _What do you want?_

Lydia turns neatly planting herself beside him, watching over the room filled with pack,  _with family._  It’s Scott and Allison’s house, a little creaky and old with outdated wall-paper and the downstairs bathroom forever needs maintenance but it’s theirs, and it’s the first dwelling any of their group has decided to permanently call all their own. 

“He’s not going to get married and adopt babies with you if you keep glowering over here at him and never say anything about _hmm_  actually not minding his company?” 

Derek breathes a heavy sigh,  _Lydia._ She’s been doing this for months now, making snide little observations, clearly unwelcome and too clever by half. He  _knows_  what he’s doing, he’s their Alpha he   _has_  to know. 

It doesn’t mean he always likes it. 

He watches again, the way Scott laughs, beaming with pride as his best friend lifts his daughter again, pressing happy kisses to her cheeks and plush little mouth. Stiles is a natural with Julia, he’s been away at school and hasn’t had a chance to properly meet her until now, in the midst of the pack’s entirety. 

“I am  _smitten._ ” Stiles lowers her to his chest, cradling one strong hand under her bottom, “I don’t know how anything this cute could possibly be a part of you, dude.” It’s at that moment Julia decides to stretch and growl threateningly, eyes flashing before settling back in against Stiles’ chest, shutting her eyes contentedly. 

The noise Stiles makes is inhuman. 

“I’m going to  _steal_  her. I don’t know how, but it’s going to happen when you least expect it.” Derek stops listening then, digging his fingers into his own arms, pinching hard at the tender undersides. 

Pain is good, he understands pain. 

“Watching the two of you isn’t amusing anymore, it’s  _sad._ ” Lydia states grumpily, Derek mostly ignores her, he knows what he’s doing. There’s really no other option for him, for  _them._ There is no  _them,_  there can’t be. 

Scott leaves for a moment to check in on things in the kitchen, it’s almost time for dinner, they’ll sit down around the large second-hand table, and talk and laugh and generally behave like a family and not the ratty group of teenagers Derek had originally found. He’s exceptionally proud of them all, what they’ve become, what they’re still becoming. 

Stiles turns then, a little bouncing sway as he murmurs to Julia, too low for even Derek to hear, and when he looks up their eyes meet. He stops moving for a moment accessing, Derek knows that look, Stiles is  translating his expression. He presses his lips together further but makes no apologies about being caught watching, doesn’t avert his gaze now. 

“I bet your Uncle Derek’s been spoiling you huh?” Stiles looks down at Julia, but it’s clear he’s raised his volume enough so he knows Derek can hear him, “You’re the first baby, cub, whatever you are to be born in this pack, you’re special, just like he is.” 

Derek knows he’s talking about being a werewolf from birth, but it doesn’t stop the painful twist in his chest. 

“You two have a lot of stuff in common you know, all killer instinct, and being unable to use your words.” Stiles has taken up swaying again, it’s a natural movement, ebb and flow, “You’re both pretty cute too, but in different ways. I don’t think you could pull off that much stubble kid, no offense.” 

Derek rolls his eyes. Lydia has drifted into conversation with Danny, and he can’t say he misses her company all that much, but it does make things feel strangely private between he and Stiles, separated by the room, but both alone. Alone,  _together_.

“The most important thing though?” Stiles continues seemingly oblivious, “You’re both kind of mean.” he states honestly. Derek lets out a low breath at that, finally looking down and away, he shouldn’t have intruded on a private moment, shouldn’t have listened to what he knew he didn’t want to hear - 

“Stealing away bits of my heart the way you have, I’ll never get them back either, and honestly? Between you and me? I don’t _want_ them back.” 

Derek’s gaze flicks up again, watching Stiles swaying and making serene faces at Julia’s little body as if he hasn’t just dropped that  _that_  into the room at large although no one else seems to be listening - either that or they all already  _knew._  It’s horrifyingly likely. He feels gutted, and exposed, like Stiles has just grabbed a handful of his hair and tugged hard, exposing his throat entirely to everyone. 

He stays frozen, even as Stiles meanders over to him. He ends up exactly where Lydia had stood, but they actually stand shoulder to shoulder and this close he can hear Julia’s tiny sleeping heartbeat. 

“You look like you’re going to have a stroke, here, take the baby, it’s supposed to calm your nerves or something.” He offers a tiny body and Derek accepts the transfer blankly. Julia shifts and growls in her doze, she’s acknowledging him as her Alpha, something that never fails to make him feel simultaneously a thousand years old and far far too young to be entrusted with the safety of a being this tiny. 

He severely doubts Stiles’ authority when it comes to babies and nerves.

“I- Uh- I thought you knew.” Stiles shoves his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his heels. Derek merely tucks his hand more securely around Julia’s back. 

“How I - about what I said.” his words tumble out almost on top of each other. Derek breathes hard through his nose. Stiles is flustered, in a way he so rarely is lately, not since the early days where everything was new and secret and  _raw_. 

It’s different now, a different kind of rawness, the kind of pain that comes from scratching yourself bloody because it just feels so good. That itch has been under his skin for months, years, steadfastly ignored at every turn. The thrum of  _want, want, want,_ never ceases, never lets up, merely grows the older they get, the more they mature, the more  _Stiles_  matures. 

He couldn’t turn back from that, couldn’t un-scratch that itch, couldn’t deal with it if it somehow turned south and cut him open all over again. The pack would come unglued in the wake of their hurts. 

Julia shifts in her sleep, kicking tiny legs against his stomach. 

But the thing is, the pack isn’t held together with chewing gum, and hopes and prayers anymore. There are physical markers of their presence in each others lives, things like children and houses can’t just be swept away. They sink deep between them all, cementing them together. 

As much as he loathes to say it, he thinks Lydia might have a point to her nagging. 

“I do now.” Derek finally says, swallowing back the anxiety surrounding the words. He focuses instead on Stiles’ hesitant smile and Julia’s breathing in his arms. 


End file.
